Led Zeppelin IV

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Also known as the "rune" album because of the medieval symbols adorning its cover, Led Zeppelin's fourth album, released in 1971, turned them from mere superstars into giant behemoths of the rock world. On tracks like "Black Dog", "Misty Mountain Hop", and "Rock and Roll", the combination of Robert Plant's banshee wails and Jimmy Page's frenetic guitar playing forever altered the stylistic bent of hard rock music. And the foreboding "When the Levee Breaks" demonstrated that Zeppelin could indeed play the blues fairly straight if they so desired. Still, everything here ultimately took a back seat to the album's (and, ultimately, the band's) magnum opus--the expertly constructed and deftly executed classic, "Stairway to Heaven". --Billy Altman

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Description
Led Zeppelin's epochal fourth album finds both the band's blues-rock thunder and their gentler, more lyrical side fileddown to a razor-sharp point. "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" aren't just perennial air-guitar anthems; they're the ultimate distillation of the blues-inflected, hard-rock fury theband had already been perfecting for the past three years. Robert Plant's Little Richard-on-amphetamines wail rides perfectly atop the band's strategically directed crunch for maximum impact. "When the Levee Breaks"is a titanic take on theblues, with John Bonham's thunderous drums echoing through the subsequent decades. The folkier, acoustic tracks providewelcome moments of beauty and respite, and all the elementsof the band's sound come together in "Stairway to Heaven", a suite of shifting dynamics that would become the Eiffel Tower of classic-rock radio forevermore.

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Customer reviews

review by: TRUE METAL date: 2008-06-20 rating:
Led Zeppelins most famous album all because of the wicked Stairway to Heaven.
This album is a classic and and includes the famous and overplayed song Stairway To Heaven which is an epic song. Everyone is saying Stairway To heaven is the best but i think it's The Battle Of Evermore inspired by the lord of the rings books (or something like that). Every song is a classic from the rocker Rock N' Roll to the slow acoustic Going To California this is a rock masterpiece by Led Zeppelin. A must have in any music fans collection you cant be without it. Long live led zeppelin.

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review by: fish date: 2008-03-22 rating:
Takes me back to the gooid old days....
Lets face it for those in the know ... this is undoutedly one of the, if not the best albums coming from Zeppelin.... time to rock

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review by: probably the world's worst reviewer.. date: 2008-02-21 rating:
Yup
wow $h!t man like ouch baby it's hootchy cootchy time totally outside the envelope red hot mamas I'm coming home babe killer album like SO elemental, dude. Awesome to the power of infinity, man.

Well I liked it anyway.

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review by: a.ka. enter sandman date: 2008-01-20 rating:
led zeppelin four
led zeppelin four is an all time classic and has one of their best songs like stairway to heaven an instant radio classic and i like the ending to that song. rock and roll is an excellent driving song and once appeared on cadillac commercials. an instant classic rock album.


review by: date: 2007-12-13 rating:
The best Led Zeppelin album!

Best tracks: "Black Dog", "Stairway to Heaven", "Going to California", "When the Levee Breaks".

Led Zeppelin IV, or Four Symbols, or ZoSo, or The Rune Album, or The Fourth Album, or Untitled, or whatever - I'll just call it the Best Led Zeppelin Album - is a sensational rock monster masterpiece and the perfect introduction to one of the greatest bands of all time. From the unparalleled sex-groove of "Black Dog" to the astonishingly colossal "When the Levee Breaks", this is about as fun and fine as it gets. Yeah, back to "Black Dog" - what a song! Honestly, this boasts one of the most insanely fantastic riffs ever created (all hail Jimmy Page!) and exudes moments of such deliriously exciting fervour (check out that ending!) that most bands couldn't even dream of matching, this song is one major reason why people bow down to this band. It's an absolute classic and, dare I say it....their best song.... It's perfectly followed by the fun and fast good times of "Rock and Roll", which has a terrific chorus that'll have you boogieing on down like there's no tomorrow! Zeppelin definitely rock out on this album better than on any of their others (Robert Plant is on STUPENDOUSLY fine form here), but the ghostly and captivating "The Battle of Evermore", which seriously sounds like it was composed far away in the White Mountains of Middle-Earth (that's Lord of the Rings by the way, which the band fondly referenced more than once) just exudes a genuine fantastical atmosphere that's too good to dismiss as Tolkein-obsessed fluff. Great guitar by Jimmy Page and lovely guest backing vocals by Fairport Convention's Sandy Denny too! Then there's "Stairway to Heaven", which is fantastic really; what can I say about this one that hasn't been said already? Well, it's a beautiful epic, evoking a shivery, quivering and uplifting atmosphere right up until that ecstatic solo that inspired a billion poorer imitations yet still sounds extraordinary today....I'm listening to it right now and yep, it is a thing of utter, ridiculous, fearless, thrilling joy! Listen to it go!

The second side opens with a blast in the form of the fantastic "Misty Mountain Hop" too; it's got a terrific hook and some killer drumming by John Bonham; this album's definitely his finest hour, though his greatest moment on this album was yet to arrive....anyway, back to "Misty Mountain Hop" has got it all, the band sound fantastic, it's a great time all round, and another classic! Five out of five so far! Can the album keep it up? Well "Four Sticks" is good, solid, not brilliant, but good. You can't have everything can you? It's a strong enough way to keep the album flowing though, and besides, the following "Going to California" sees the band deliver one of their prettiest, loveliest ballads ever....a welcome air of bucolic, evening-sky beauty along the lines of Led Zeppelin III's "Tangerine" and "That's the Way", it's haunting, delicate and truly lovely. Led Zeppelin weren't always about crunching riffs and huge drums, they often had a gorgeous lighter side to them, and this song is one of their best examples of this style. Nevertheless, they pack an immense wallop with closing song "When the Levee Breaks"; an incredible production that sounds amazingly ahead of its time for 1971, huge, spectacular drums (Bonham`s best ever!) and a heart-stopping riff (one of Zeppelin's most mindblowing) make for one of the biggest, most panoramic rock songs ever and a truly magnificent closer to one of the very, very best albums ever made! Turn it up LOUD!

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